


Even As A Shadow

by everyperfectsummer



Series: Tumblr Prompts [35]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-10 15:52:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11129961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyperfectsummer/pseuds/everyperfectsummer
Summary: Prompt: "How about a fic where a new meta human impersonates The Flash and everyone thinks Barry is just acting off because of emotional stress but Len and Mick realize that this is not the real Barry?" Thanks so much for the prompt!





	Even As A Shadow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ElvinaAmunet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElvinaAmunet/gifts).



> Thanks so much for the prompt!  
> Triggers: blood mention, injury mention. Please let me know if there's something else that I overlooked!

Barry comes back from the fight with Savitar with half his face gaping open. “I beat him,” Barry gasps out, one hand holding a wad of paper towels to his cheek. They’ve already filled with blood and are beginning to drip onto the floor. Caitlin flutters vaguely in his direction, making worried noises about infection and blood loss and  _ Barry Allen, you need medical care immediately, sit down and let me deal with this. _

 

The others watch, helpless, as Barry endures Caitlin’s best efforts to patch him up, and then endures the resulting scarring. Or rather, the results of the resulting scarring, as people start to shy away from his face. Bright, bold, beautiful Barry Allen – still beautiful, Mick and Len assure him over and over – is now cast aside by society, with children pointing and adults trying far too hard to keep their gaze on the “good” half of his face.

 

Confronted with mixture of too much kindness and casual cruelty, Barry retreats from the world, choosing to spend the bare minimum of time at work and on Flash duty, and spend most of his time at home, with Mick and Len. 

 

Or at least, that’s the comforting narrative that Team Flash have embraced, following the first fight that left its mark on their hero, that left him barely a hero at all. 

 

His boyfriends aren’t so sure. It’s tempting to ascribe Barry’s behavioral changes to his physical ones, to take the labels “cause” and “effect” and slap them on, but…something’s off, about Barry. He only vaguely remembers things that happened just weeks ago; he cracks inside jokes that make no sense. He’s still Barry, still has that indescribable sunshiney  _ something _ that makes Barry  _ Barry, _ but…

 

“It’s as though he’s lived a different life,” Mick remarks to Len, sitting in a safe house Barry doesn’t know about while Barry’s safely at work.

 

“Mmm,” Len stares at his steepled fingers.

 

“Different universe Barry?” Mick doesn’t have to wait for Len to shake his head to rule the idea out. “No, he’s too close for that, too many things match up. Different timeline, maybe?” Len’s still staring at his fingertips. Time to break him out of his thoughts. “Len, what do you think?”

 

“I think,” Len says slowly, over enunciating every syllable, “that there are two things we never found.”

 

Mick waits for the punchline. “Savitar’s body, after he fought Barry. And Savitar’s  _ identity _ .” 

 

It takes Mick a second, more because he’s not willing to believe it than because he can’t connect the dots, but then his jaw drops slightly. “You mean…” he says quietly, afraid to say it out loud, as though saying it will make it true.

 

Two speedsters had gone into the woods for a showdown. One had come out. And they hadn’t checked too carefully about which one, exactly, had emerged victorious.

 

Len nods, swinging his leg down from where it had been balanced precariously above his head, and gets off the couch. “Time we catch ourselves a speedster.”

 

It takes time, to figure out a plan. Shorter than their plans generally take, but long, too – too long, given that every day they spend planning is a day they spend making nice with “Barry” so that he doesn’t suspect anything, a day where something terrible could be happening to their Barry.

 

But finally, it comes together, and it’s relatively simple, with just three steps involved. First, a well placed call to Cisco’s new girlfriend, Charmer, explaining the situation and asking for her help. Second, banking on the fact that Cisco and Caitlin cannot lie and everyone – including this “Barry” – knows it, they casually manipulate them to invite Barry over for a movie, with just a few carefully dropped comments about the importance of friendship and Barry feeling neglected lately. Third, waiting until the movie is started and team Flash is nestled together on the couch for Charmer to walk in, kiss Cisco on the cheek, and casually disconnect “Barry” from the speed force.

 

“Barry” jumps off the couch, clearly unsure about who to attack first, and Len and Mick step out from behind the door.

 

“Not so fast, hotshot,” Len drawls, and Mick, very loudly, powers up his gun.

 

“Barry” – or Savitar, really – smirks, and the expression is both incredibly  _ Barry _ and incredibly wrong in some way that neither of his boyfriends can quite put their finger on. “What gave me away?”

 

And though he hadn’t known, before, what exactly was wrong, just that something was, Mick blurts out, “The kissing.”

Feeling the realization come to him as the words spill out of his mouth, he continues, “You always alternate which of us you kiss first, because you have this weird idea that if you don’t, we’ll think you love one of us more than the other. And it was Len’s turn, after the fight. But instead, you kissed me first. We thought you lost track but...you don’t lose track.”

 

Len shrugs. “I was going to say that the scars on your face looked self inflicted, not externally inflicted, but that works too. So tell us…” He raises the gun and powers it on. “ _ Where is Barry?” _

 

Mick raises his gun as well. “Tell us how to bring him home.”

 

“He’s  _ me,” _ Savitar snarls. “I am the future Flash. He becomes me! I was him!” And for all that the tone is aggressive, Len and Mick know Barry – and he is Barry, on some level – well enough to know that the aggression is covering underlying hurt.

 

“And so you will always have a home with Mick and I, until and unless you decide you don’t want it,” Len says, in a surprisingly gentle tone given that he’s pointing a gun at Savitar. “But you need to help us bring Barry home, too.”

 

Savitar scoffs. “So, what’s the plan? You all live like you used to and I stay in the guest room?”

 

“No,” Mick says, finding that he loves this man, this person who took Barry away from him, because he  _ is _ Barry. “We already have three men in a relationship. Four men, two of whom are technically the same person, isn’t that much weirder.”

 

“We love Barry,” Len adds, “which means we love you, too.”

 

“You can come home with us, as long as the other Barry comes home too” Mick finishes.

 

Savitar -- Barry, really, -- stares at them, hope dawning in his eyes. “You promise?”

 

“Yes,” they say, and are echoed by a chorus of assent from Cisco, Caitlin, and Cynthia. 

 

“I have been, and shall always be, your friend,” Cisco quotes, and the reference startles a laugh from Barry.

 

“Ok,” he says, “I’ll help you bring him home.”


End file.
